ESL Website
An Honors Thesis (HONRS 499)
By
Megan Hoppe
katIe Lohmeyer
Thesis Advisor
Lynne StallinQs
"
. / ti1;/5
: ~":/?H,f1.L' ./
4/
1Jl4
,f -
Ball State University
Muncie, Indiana
4/29/11
Expected Date of Graduation
5/7111
r , !/
Abstract
(J.
,- ,
As the population of non-English speaking people in the United States grows,
elementary teachers are faced with the daunting task of teaching non-English speaking
students . A large percentage of elementary teachers have not been fOlmally trained in
teaching these English Language Learners. Not only must elementary teachers instruct
students in English, they must also teach math, science, and social studies. With all of the
demands placed on elementary teachers, being prepared to meet all students' academic needs
can be a daunting task. As two pre-service elementary teachers who have been trained in
English as a Second Language, we have built this website to help teachers gather
information about their learners and the best practices for meeting their needs .
AcknowledgementS'
We would like to thank Dr. Stallings for her guidance, enthusiasm, and patience as
we have put together this thesis website. Thank you for effectively instructing us over the
years so that we would be equipped and motivated to complete such a task.
Authors 'Statement
As pre-service elementary teachers with concentrations in English as a Second
Language, we have a unique perspective into the Elementary Education world.
For the past few years, we have observed our elementary colleagues ' struggles to educate
English learners in mainstream elementary classrooms. We asked fellow teachers what
they areas they believed would be the most helpful to know in reaching these learners.
We organized their comments into two general needs: knowing the process or steps to
take in helping these students and having access to practical materials and ideas they can
use to assist them . As teachers with knowledge in the ESL field, we want to assist our
peers in gaining the knowledge they need to confidently teach their students. Our goal
with our thesis is to aid teachers by consolidating the ESL knowledge we have gained
throughout our college career into an easily accessible format.
We chose to format our thesis as a website because it is the most practical and
effective way of distributing what we know to teachers who need it. A website has
widespread influence and is a free source that teachers are able to access, whenever they
wish. This format respects the limited amount of time that teachers have available for
research. We feel that teachers would be more willing and likely to use the Internet than
paper sources to look up pertinent information. Upon choosing this format we decided to
analyze and critique other ESL websites to see what information was available already,
how it was formatted and the general accessibility of the websites. One criticism we
noted was that websites often provided too much, too little or inaccurate information that
teachers would have to sort through. Therefore, we have tried to make the information on
our website concise and to the point. By providing the information we feel is important
for all elementary educators to know, we will be helping them to provide a quality
education for English learners that meets their specific needs.
On our website we purposefully chose a variety of formatting such as videos,
lists, short paragraphs, links and documents so that teachers would not have to read
lengthy text to find relevant information. We understand that teachers are on a time
crunch and so our outline and format were created to respect that. In researching for our
project, we found that other web sites tended to lean toward what an ESL instructor, as
opposed to the mainstream classroom teacher, would do or simply had worksheets that
were not as effective as they could be. Instead of those features, which already are in
great supply on the Internet, we wanted to focus on best practices. We wanted to provide
practical techniques and strategies that would enhance what teachers are already doing.
This will benefit all students, including English learners, rather than singling them out
with an alternative activity or assignment. We modeled these strategies for teachers using
real lesson plans, on which we highlighted our thoughts and reasoning behind what
elements we included in the lessons .
This project is an accurate representation of what we have learned during the last
four years at Ball State University. First, it incorporates our knowledge of both our
elementary education majors and our ESL concentrations. Second, it is a testament to the
important lessons we learned in the Honors College. During our many Honors classes, we
learned the importance of being proactive in solving a problem. In our methods classes
and field experiences, we realized the there was a significant problem in the infonnation
gap between the elementary education and ESL populations and wanted to be part of the
solution. We discovered this through our peers and cooperating teachers' questions and
comments to us about how ill prepared they felt when teaching these students. We could
have chosen to write a thirty page paper on the topic, but we felt a website would be more
useful and meaningful in solving the problem. We know that it is our duty as (almost)
Honors College graduates to use our knowledge to educate and to creatively face life's
problems. We hope that this website will grow over the years and spread to others so that
English learners can receive the education they deserve and their teachers will no longer
struggle to accommodate them appropriately. These teachers and students can then focus
on learning rather than building up frustrations in school and life.
-~KaaeLohm~erandA1egan}{oppe
PersonalAuthor:S Statement
Through my time preparing to be an English as a Second Language instructor, I
have grown in my desire to advocate for ESL students. Over the last four years, I have come
in contact with many international students of all ages. I have been repeatedly struck by the
idea that many of these individuals have a genuine desire to learn English and to experience
American culture. However, many of the pre-service educators that I have worked with have
received any information about how to interact with and support these English language
learners. When Miss Lohmeyer asked me to be a part of her honors thesis creative project, I
was thrilled. I would be so happy if our website created a more positive experience for even
one ESL student. I hope that this website can be a tool for many elementary teachers which
will benefit the ESL and education communities.
Compiling the information for this website was an opportunity for personal growth,
as well. It required me to synthesize a lot of information that I had gathered from my Ball
State classes, from reading professional literature, and from my own teaching experiences. It
also required me to evaluate the importance and practicality of all of this information. I
wanted our site to include only practical information in a easy-to-access format., so that busy
teachers would be more likely to find the specific information that they need. The process of
creating this site solidified and strengthened my personal knowledge of best practice in
instructing ESL students.
-®Megan Hoppe
Thesis
Our thesis can be found at eslhelp4teachers.weebly.com
EeL
~ELP
About Us
Home
Welcome to Our
web5ite~
We are two EJementary Education and
E1l91jsh for Speake,. of Other languages teachers who ..ek 10 help
ESl Ac ronyms
fellow elementary teAchers .
Uf. as ill! ESt student
Our Mission Is to_
give general element.ary edutat;on teachers Informalion about
English \e-arners
share classroom Ideas thar have ~n prown to work
Pro"dency Levels
5howca.se
ActlYtlf~.
and
Id~;K
Rnources for Tucller.
RMourus tor Students
bt'!.t
practice techniques
ultimately help E"9I/'h learne" get tM best .ducallon
possible I
Dltr.,~nlfatill!l ~S50n.
Contact Information
If you would like to contact u' with que'tlons or suggestion, about anything In regards to English le.mers.
plea,e fill in the contact form below.
Contact Fofm
Nam~
•
Works Cited
Books and articles from which we have gathered and compiled information:
Brown, H. Douglas (2004) . Language Assessment: Principles and Classroom Practices.
San Francisco State University: Pearson Education
Cary, Stephen (2007). Working with English Language Learners: Answers to Teachers'
Top Ten Questions . Heinemann: Portsmouth, NH
Diaz-Rico, Lynne T . (2008) Strategies/or Teaching English Learners. Boston: Pearson
Education
Echevarria, Jana A ., Short, Deborah J. & Yogt, MaryEllen J. (2009). Making Content
Comprehensible For Elementary English Learners : The SlOP Model. Boston:
Allyn & Bacon
Indiana Department of English Learning and Migrant Education
http://www.doe.in.gov/lmmp/
Indiana State Board of Education and Indiana ESL Task Force. Levels of English
Proficiency & Corresponding Student Actions. Indiana: Indiana State Board of
Education
Indiana State Board of Education and Indiana ESL Task Force (2003). Indiana's English
Language Proficiency Standards. Indiana: Indiana State Board of Education
Tannenbaun, Jo-Ellen (1996) Practical Ideas on Alternative Assessment for ESL Students.
Retrieved on April 19, 2010 from:
http://www.cal.org/resources/digestitannenO 1.html
Similar websites used as examples of which elements were necessary/unnecessary:
www .colorincolorado.org
www.eslcafe.com
www.englishciub.com
www.everythingesl.nct
http://iteslj.org/
http://1iteracy.calumet.purdue.edu/studentiewhiteOO/index.html
http://rpmeredith.iweb. bsu.edu/ESLFi nall
Photos and videos:
Top of all pages:
Ajari, "Heiwa elementary school" September 6, 2009 via flickr, Creative Commons
Attribution
Home page:
Woodleywonderworks', " First grade reading- small group breakout" October 11,2009 via
flickr, Creative Commons Attribution
FAQ page:
One Laptop per Child, "Mongolia," January 17,2008 via Flickr, Creative Commons
License
Pink Sherbet Photography, "Happy Girl Hopscotch in Strawberry Free Creative
Commons," September 5, 2006 via Flickr, Creative Commons License
Woodleywonderworks, "Teaching with emotion: a Halloween story," October 24,2008
via Flickr, Creative Commons License
Activities and ideas page:
<cleverCl@i@e>, "Chinese class" January 29, 2007 via flickr, Creative Commons
Attribution
woodleywonderworks, "school friends" September 14, 2007 via flickr, Creative
Commons Attribution